This Is Your Brain on Sports

Publisher's Summary

This Is Your Brain on Sports is the audiobook for sports fans searching for a deeper understanding of the games they watch and the people who play them. Sports Illustrated executive editor and best-selling author L. Jon Wertheim teams up with Tufts psychologist Sam Sommers to take listeners on a wild ride into the inner world of sports. Through the prism of behavioral economics, neuroscience, and psychology, they reveal the hidden influences and surprising cues that inspire and derail us on the field and in the stands - and, by extension, in corporate boardrooms, office settings, and our daily lives. In this irresistible narrative romp, Wertheim and Sommers usher us from professional football to the NBA to Grand Slam tennis, from the psychology of athletes self-handicapping their performances in the boxing ring or the World Series to an explanation of why even the glimpse of a finish line can lift us beyond ordinary physical limits. They explore why Tom Brady and other starting NFL quarterbacks all seem to look like fashion models; why fans of teams like the Cubs, Mets, and any franchise from Cleveland love rooting for a loser; why the best players make the worst coaches; why hockey goons (and fans) would rather fight at home than on the road; and why the arena T-shirt cannon has something to teach us about human nature. This Is Your Brain on Sports is an entertaining and thought-provoking journey into how psychology and behavioral science collide with the universe of wins and losses, coaching changes, underdogs, and rivalry games.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful

FAN-tastic!

I recommend this book if you A) are even remotely interested in sport(s) and are curious about sports myths/legends, or B) enjoy social psychology and wide applications of studies to the human experience. I fall into both of these categories, thus the 5 stars. Do not let the title fool you. There is a plethora of sports facts and figures, for certain, but equal amounts of study of the business world, education, and media. The most valuable takeaways are that sports fans are just human and that everyone has an inner sports fan. In other words, you can apply the lessons here to many settings. It helps that along with serious data, there is plenty of humor. The narration is 5 stars hands down.

Trying to listen to this book and early on all I get is point ratings on the 'good' looks of quarterbacks. Really? Just a few number and make your point. I have been listening to names and numbers for at least 15 minutes.This book fails to hold my attention.I get it symmetry goes hand in hand with our perception of good looks. Must we rate all of the NFL quarterbacks... 5.8, 5.3, 4.6 etcI thought this book was about athletes sports not the NFL...